Do You Use An Emergency Recall Word?

I was recently chatting with a potential client during a consultation and evaluation when he stated that his previous trainer had suggested using an emergency recall word. Not knowing exactly what he was referring to, I asked him to clarify. It turns out that the dog was not only taught a traditional recall using the word “come”, but also taught an additional word that meant something along the lines of “no matter what you are doing, I need you to me right now!”

Now I know there are tons of different approaches to dog training, and I not here to slam all training methodologies that differ from ours, and maybe I’m missing something, but I just can’t see the logic in this approach. This is how I see it…

If the emergency word means “come here right now no matter what”, then the regular old come command must mean something along the lines of “if you’re up for it, why don’t you swing by my way when you’re ready.” I know it’s just a training preference, but why even teach a regular recall at all? Why not just make your emergency word “come” and treat every recall with the same importance?

If someone can shed light on this logic, I’d love to hear it. Also, does anyone have a similar training practice (like using the word “stay”) that makes you wonder? If so, please open the discussion in the comments section below.

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